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Monday, January 09, 2006

To Conference Committee

Later this week, the legislative leaders are expected to announce the gathering of a large conference committee to hammer out the details of a Legislature-approved bond.

Three bonds, Nunez's, Perata's and Schwarzenegger's, will all go into the committee for discussion. What will come out is anyone's guess, but it is interesting that while Republicans have traditionally played the role of whittling down such bonds in conference, this time it will be the Republican governor's bond that is the biggest.

I have never liked major public policy starting in conference committee. It leaves the majority of the legislature out of the process and then presents to each House a final product which cannot be amended.

It would be better to start with one bill in one House, and move it through the process - allowing for the greatest level of public review and discourse. This is how the legislative process was designed and this is how public policy (particulalry of this magnitude) should be developed.